Mind & Iron: a short adventure for 8th-level players (PDF Download)

[El Coro]

I'm not sure whether or not I should post all of these adventures in one thread so as to not pollute the forum more than necessary - let me know if there's some kind of etiquette I should follow for this. I just want to make it clear that these adventures are all separate, stand-alone projects.

Anyways, here we go!

Download the PDF here.
Download a smaller version without full-sized maps here.

Mind & Iron is a short adventure designed for five 7th to 9th-level adventurers. The rural farming village of Casai was not prepared for Movasi and his Magnificent Mechanicals of Mind and Iron, automated mechanisms that have begun replacing the villagers, one by one. The players will fight off a pride of hungry lions, then follow the clues to Movasi’s shop, where they will fight some of the new mechanicals he has created, then confront Movasi himself, fighting him in the heart of his factory.

The PDF has a full story, flavor text, hooks, to-scale maps, monsters with all original powers and abilities, and some cool unique combat hooks.

Enjoy, and as usual please feel free to post comments, questions, and feedback - I'd appreciate it!

Corwin

 

[Mesh Hong]

Well I have read the scenario and it is very well presented and nicely written, I especially love the flavour text for the villains elaborate “sales pitch”.

The problem I have with it is that I can’t really see where it would fit as a side quest in a campaign. I understand the hook, and the premise of the (slightly obscured) story theme is appealing and sort of works, but it is the tone and context of the entire scenario that doesn’t sit well in my (admittedly simple) mind.

The main villain and his shop of automatons are massively high tech (less so I suppose within eberron) and in the small village they stand out so glaringly that you really wouldn’t need any form of plot hook to get the PCs inside. They would take one look at it and know it was the plot. Personally I think the underlying story you are trying to tell with your plot idea could be done in a much more subtle way and with a greater sense of wonder and mystery.

Note: It is entirely possible that the brief side quest is meant purely as comic relief, and it would probably work for that purpose, but I can’t recall the scenario description stating that clearly.

 

[El Coro]

Humor is meant to be a big part of it, mostly because I don't agree with how most D&D games I've played in are all dead-serious downers - life is funny. I like having villains that aren't exactly comical (still dangerous, evil, etc.), but are clearly eccentric or crazy enough to act a little off and have their own personality and ideas - sometimes these come off as quite funny, though the content itself is serious: missing and/or dead children, and some artificer preying on a nearby community.

I suppose I didn't state it clearly, but the idea is that Movasi moved out here to set up the secret shop away from everyone else. He isn't supposed to be in or near the village - more up in the mountains, in seclusion away from the prying eyes of greedy city-dwellers and opportunists. He doesn't think the lowly, uneducated peasants of Casai will bother him at all, so he doesn't mind them knowing he's there and since some of them seem interested, he makes a little profit on the side.

My point being, the PCs shouldn't stumble upon the shop and then be forced to ignore it to enter Casai and be fed some story - they shouldn't even know the shop exists until the farmers tell them about it and where it is.

As for fitting it in as a side quest, it really depends on your loyalty and adherence to D&D canon. Some people (me and my friends included) don't play in a specific campaign world and don't really care about something seeming a little out of place or too technological - though I could see that bothering others.

For telling the story in a more subtle way, that's really up to the DM and how he/she feels out the players' intentions and knowledge as it's going on. I left out and changed quite a bit of this when I ran it for my own group, but I wanted to make sure all the info and tools were there if needed.

For my group, my players were already heading through the outskirts of a kingdom, so I offered them a shortcut across the grassy plains, which they took. They stumbled upon the lions and the girl, then carried her to the town they saw in the distance. Once they talked to some of the farmers, they began looking for Movasi's shop, and I threw in a skill challenge for following clues across the plains to the nearby mountains to find its entrance. I explained away the technology as basically more-advanced warforged, and the players accepted it without much of a hassle - who doesn't love robots?!

I also tossed in a short encounter between the 2nd and 3rd, where they had to make their way down the defective robot area, where broken and legless robots tried to chase them as the players weaved in and out of moving machinery.

The only hiccup I ran into was that the players were dead set on two things:

1) Trying to trick Movasi into parlay so they could stab him in the back, so I had to make it a little more obvious that they weren't the first group of adventurers here by having them discover some older adventuring gear scattered about in one of the rooms.

2) Detecting whether other farmers were robots with Arcana checks. As written in the adventure, they couldn't detect the arcane aura until the magical insides were ruptured or destroyed, so they didn't feel too cheated in the end - though a couple did exclaim that they knew it all along, which was fine.

After killing Movasi and returning to the farmers and the broken robots, the players were a little pissed at being sent on a witch hunt by these peasants. They knew the city that the daughter ran away to, and withheld it from the farmers, burning the evidence so that she could escape their small and controlling world. When finished, the players resumed their original quest and headed back across the plains - seemed to fit in quite easily, though it was unexpected.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your comments, Mesh! I wasn't sure that anyone was even reading these adventures, so I appreciate you taking the time to look one over. Let me know if you have more thoughts or comments on this or in general the kind of one-shot atmosphere you're looking for.

 

[Mesh Hong]

As you asked for any other thoughts I had, here is what I had written out to post but deleted because it was just unnecessary ramblings.

As I was writing it I suddenly realised that any fleshing out of plot would depend on the DM and style of play, and that what you had presented in the scenario was obviously enough to peak my interest enough to expand on its plot. This means that it is more than fit for purpose.

Anyway...

I think I might believe the story more if the villain was producing a small number of automatons that actually helped the farmers, while still obviously being automatons. A self propelled cart, plough or thresher for instance would be a miraculous thing for a small isolated community, it would also buy the villain some credibility and status in the community while still allowing scope for some of the old folk to be suspicious of the new fangled machines.

From this the main story conceit could grow when there is a tragic isolated accident with one of the machines. A farmer’s child is terribly injured and the villain is held responsible. Guilt ridden, the villain takes the child into his workshop to try and heal him but there is nothing he can do…. But wait maybe he can put into practice his years of research in making the perfect replicant? Of course he can, and thus the first impostor automaton is created.

It is a small step from the production of one replica person to the possibility of a second. What if someone discovers that the child is a cuckoo in the nest? Maybe they want to leave the settlement but their parents will not allow it (as is stated in your plot), this person begs the villain to build an automaton of them so that they can escape to the city. This is successful, but what about the villain?

Maybe he realises that with an army of these automatons he could build the perfect society, or even make a lot of money to fund greater and more important work. But those old folks are a thorn in his side……

etc etc

But here I come up against another mental barrier. As described the isolated community is self sufficient and staunchly independent. This leads me to think that they are either poor or have little interest in money, they probably barter amongst themselves and possibly co-operate and pool surplus produce to sell at the city to buy the few things they cannot grow or make themselves. They may also use any money to buy small luxuries.

If the above is the case then how can they afford the automatons, They surely can’t be cheap? the most likely way I can see it happening is that they are leased and the villain will either gain a percentage of the value of the crop produced (he can encourage the farmers by saying that they will be able to farm a greater area with less work) or he persuades the farmers to sell him stakes in their farms. I cannot really see a proud and independent people selling part of their holdings to him though.

Interestingly anyone who was leasing an automaton from the villain would have something to gain from his death or sudden disappearance, and this is an angle you could use as a lead in an investigation element of a plot.

In order to allow more space for an investigative plot to grow I think you would need to present the villain outside his shop, he could occasionally come to town to deal with the local blacksmith who produces mundane items for him. I think I might also consider another minor twist here, what about if the villain made an automaton replica of himself? He did this sometime ago and the replicant deals with everything outside the shop while the villain becomes isolated in his shop.

This would provide two possible scenarios:
1: The villain has been going slightly mad due to his guilt and isolation. This explains his attitude and the theatrics of his shop when the PCs discover it.

Or

2: The automaton was a too perfect copy of the villain and, without the burden of a conscience, has started carrying out its own plan which is to replace everyone in the village. The villain tried to stop it but he was too late and the automaton has restrained and imprisoned the villain to stop him interfering. (you could say that the villain had programmed all his creations not to harm him, which is another justification for the villagers being dissuaded from storming the shop and burning it to the ground).

....and there it stops.

 

[El Coro]

[MENTION=11426]mesh[/MENTION]

Thanks for posting your ramblings! Thoughts below.

Your take and background on Movasi and the village, where he started with small machines and, guilt-ridden, eventually made a copy of the girl to hide the accident - I love it. Almost makes me want to rewrite part of this or steal the tragedy of it for another adventure.

I thought about having a copy (or copies) take control of the shop and such, but I used that idea somewhat recently on another adventure (single encounter rather; Illusions & Elusions), and wanted to change things up a little bit.

In general I like to make a detailed background of really just a situation, and then I provide a story within it - I love that you snagged the idea of the situation (the farmers, Movasi, automatons, etc.) and made it completely your own - it's what I try to do with any published adventures I see--often changing the story completely--and it's so cool to see it done to my stuff.

I like the two different ideas of Movasi, which really affect the general feel of a similar tragedy.

I saw him more as an amoral entrepreneur, trying to find a little seclusion for his work and taking advantage of the curious farmers to test and create his new replicants - and a misundersanding (they think he's killed or transformed their kids) leads to the farmers' anger and Movasi's downfall (he saw them as no threat, and refused to tell them about their children - as he does have some strange code of business).

Your idea seems to be more of Movasi as an obsessive but good-natured soul who makes a few mistakes that cause things to get out of control. I love it - it feels almost like one of those cautionary tragedies from ancient Greece.

Although I want DMs to make the adventure their own, I do want my adventures to function as simple one-shots without forcing them to create their own back story that ties up some loose ends. In general, I believe I did a poor job of translating my motivations and ideas for Movasi into the adventure text.

You've convinced me that I need to add a "Motivations" section to my adventures, instead of trying to explain the goals and personalities through flavor text and the adventure quest hooks.

Thanks again for your thoughts, Mesh. This was immensely helpful (and enjoyable) for me to read!